


On Velvet Paws

by chararii



Category: Naruto
Genre: Afterlife, Enemies to Friends, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Jinchuuriki-centric, Minor Violence, Partnership, Reunions, This one is actually canon compliant can you believe it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:09:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25418227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chararii/pseuds/chararii
Summary: Matatabi is not like her siblings.Yuugito is not like her clansmen.
Relationships: Nibi | Two-tails | Matatabi & Nii Yugito
Kudos: 39





	On Velvet Paws

**Author's Note:**

> What is this, a fic without Sakura? And it's canon compliant?! IMPOSSIBLE.

Existence, for the most part, is dreadfully boring. She sleeps most days and only occasionally watches the world through her human's eyes. She sees the way the grass sways in the wind, the sun that burns down onto this earthly plane, the roiling of the waves and the ocean. 

But she cannot smell. Or feel. Touch. She's in her prison and stopped paying much attention to what happens beyond her bars centuries ago. The ache in her soul is too much, the desire to run free alongside her siblings too great. She'd rather deprive herself of these glimpses to avoid the memories they bring.

Existence is, ultimately, dreadfully boring. Until, eventually, it isn't.

Matatabi is not like Isobu who prefers harmony over strife, neither is she like Saiken who prioritises companionship over her own self preservation. Matatabi is also not like Kurama who would fight his jailer till the end of his days, endlessly antagonise whichever poor soul they stuck him with. She is not like Shukaku who rages and hates, is brutal in a way even Kurama is not, would drive his jailer insane if only it meant he could exercise some small measure of retaliation.

Matatabi is, like all of her siblings, unique. She is cunning, smart, vicious when needed, apathetic when appropriate. She's a hunter and a predator, one who knows how to pick her battles and when it's better to retreat, plot, and engage once more. She's a thinker, a curious soul, playful and very much a beast after her own heart.

They stick her with idiots. Her jailers are large men, brutish and strong, much like the people of the realm she has been assigned to. They are loud, careless and charge without thinking, force her power from her, drain her without consideration. They call her an animal. A monster. A mindless creature of chakra and little else. 

They do not respect her. Matatabi grows bitter and turns her eyes away from the world.

She sleeps and sleeps, turns feral when roused, stops fighting with them and starts fighting  _back_ . Matatabi is clever. If she wants to raise hell on her jailer, she knows ways around the seal, little nooks and crannies that mice can just about to squeeze through. She's a cat, a predator, it is her very way of life to sniff out the little rodents. If she wants, she may change shape and send little tendrils through the gaps, play with her human like a toy.

Matatabi is not Kurama but finds a certain sense of satisfaction in getting as many of her humans killed as possible. They still force her into that jewellery box every time she succeeds. One day, she will break free and run and run until they can't find her anymore.

One day, she will be free.

For the first time since she was caught, they present her with a kitten. It's young and terrified, barely old enough to speak, wails its little heart out. This one is a snack, a sacrifice without family to claim it and Matatabi can taste liberty on her tongue. She purrs in the darkness of her jail, crouches low and prowls, just waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Days, weeks or years, it doesn't matter. To an ancient being such as herself, time is an abstract concept. Opportunity will present itself and this kitten will be the one to finally shatter these cursed confines that chain her.

These humans are not kind to Matatabi's kitten. They force it through gruelling training sessions, feed it and allow it rest but show it little affection besides. They tell it horror stories about the terrible beast they stuck inside it, how one day it's going to betray the kitten, how it has to train and forever stay vigilant to not be another in a long string of assisted suicides. It's been a long time since Matatabi has last seen the world through the eyes of a child and a small part of her remembers that, above all, she has always been curious.

(And that finally,  _finally_ , they have given her a female.)

Matatabi does not sleep anymore. Instead, she nestles herself into a tiny cramped corner just on the edge of this human's awareness. The kitten, child, girl, is not nearly old enough to feel her presence or recognise it for what it is. Years of tough training and few friends turn her into a jaded, mindstrong young being. She's clever too, far more clever than these humans give her credit for and one day, after lying to her superior, she spends the day in the wilderness, hunts her own deer, eats the meat raw and bloody.

The young human pauses before taking her first bite, but her claws are sharp and her teeth sharper and when she finally sinks her fangs into the flesh, Matatabi purrs.

It takes years until her human grows curious enough about the monster inside her to attempt to talk to it. Matatabi watches her amateurish attempts, snorts at the alteration between subtlety and brute force the girl attempts and languidly licks her paws as she waits for her jailer to make sense of the lock between them. 

The other humans warn her, tell her to put a stop to her actions. Matatabi is dangerous after all and just itching for a chance to consume her whole. Her jailer continues her efforts in secret and, at last, succeeds.  
„...Hello?“ Matatabi can smell the girl stand in front of the thick black bars that separate them and opens one eye first, then the other. They glow in the dark and dwarf this human, yet she doesn't shy away.

„My name is Yuugito,“ the female proclaims, long blonde hair bound into a slim ponytail, lips cherry red despite her young age. She's tall, lean, built like a dancer. 

„Hello, Yuuito,“ Matatabi purrs and prowls closer, stalks across her cell with her head low to the ground, body ready to jump and rattle the bars if needed.

„What are you called?“ Matatabi grins like the cat she is and purrs loudly, rubbing her forehead against the iron between them, baring a single fang that's twice as large as her human.

„Me?“ she asks before laying down on the ground, rolling to her back and staring at this female through her yellow eye.

„I am Matatabi.“

This human is alright, as far as humans go. She listens when appropriate, fights like one of her own, treats her powers with respect. To Matatabi, Yuugito is an adequate jailer. They are just similar enough to get along, but still too different to fall into the pit that is utter monotony. Yuugito is Matatabi's eleventh human and by far her favourite. It is for that reason, that she is more helpful than wilful, more of a boon rather than a nuisance. 

She gave up on looking for ways to get this one killed just like the rest long ago.

(It shows.)

Yuugito takes her to places all over the world, crosses into Shukaku's realm, Kurama's forests, Isobu's ocean. She's careful and wary but lets Matatabi watch without restriction, keeps the connection between them open, lets her use her nose to smell fresh air, salty seas, even the uncooked meat Yuugito so prefers. 

This human, her human, is Matatabi's gate to the freedom she so longs for and because of that, she willingly grants her her power, makes sure her human survives even the most dire of situations. Ultimately, she owes Yuugito for granting her access to more than just her eyes and Matatabi has been looking for a chance to return the favour. She does not like debts. 

Yuugito continues to live. Matatabi continues to watch.

Like all things, peace doesn't last. Matatabi notices them first, those two who smell like different kinds of death, and urges her human to run. Yuugito is clever. She knows she's being hunted, knows she can't run. If she has to go, she will take them with her.

Matatabi is furious. Her human backs herself into a corner, into a death trap she will not leave alive. All this time, all these years, wasted, and Matatabi will find herself eaten, consumed and without her stupid,  _stupid_ human simply because Yuugito decided to pick a battle she can't win.

She rages, howls, screams. Breaks free and unleashes centuries of pent-up wrath onto those two who cannot die. 

Watches as her human gets pierced through the chest. Throws herself against the bars time and time again, desperate, mindless, terrified.

They don't break.

Yuugito goes.

Matatabi follows.

„Sister,“ they greet her, and she cries.

Her siblings leave and return home. Matatabi lingers.

Days pass, weeks, months, and she wanders this earth, all on her own. Freedom with no one to share it with just doesn't feel the same.

Eventually, she too, lets go.

„Matatabi.“ Her eyes open and spot cherry lips, blonde hair, dark eyes. To her left is Isobu, meditating in the water with his short, deceptively young human. To her right is Saiken, playing with bubbles her human conjures from the pipe in his mouth.

Right here, is Matatabi, and in front of her, is Yuugito.

**Author's Note:**

> This one is really short but since I mainly wanted to focus on feelings I didn't flesh out the years in between. I also love Matatabi. Two-tails best tails.


End file.
